He may look every inch the globe-trotting FTSE 100 chief executive, but, if
things had turned out differently, Alan Clark might still be ploughing an
academic furrow as a clinical psychologist rather than running the world’s
second-biggest brewer.

The new chief executive of SABMiller must be one of the few bosses in the
blue-chip index to have gained four degrees, the last a doctorate in
psychology from the University of South Africa, and certainly the only one
to have been an associate professor in cognitive development.

He is also probably unique among his peers in having spent four years in